Members of Parliament (MPs) have opposed the push to have all education bursary funds collapsed into one scheme saying the move will lock out needy students from getting funds.

While contributing to a motion by Nairobi Women Representative Esther Passaris seeking to collapse the bursary schemes, the MPs said that they cannot trust Ministry of Education (MOE) officials to handle such huge amounts of money as they are to blame for the current mess the education sector is facing.

PS accused

The MPs singled out Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang accusing him and other bureaucrats who have served in the Ministry for the last 30 years of coming up with policies that have almost collapsed the education sector.

MPs Wamboka Wanami (Bumula), Owen Baya (Kilifi North), Beatrice Elachi (Dagoretti North), Rindikiri Mugambi (Buuri), Nabii Nabwera (Lugari), Julius Taitumu (Igembe North) and Makali Mulu (Kitui Central), argued that before addressing the issue of bursaries, the ministry needs to sort out the challenges of infrastructure, capitation and ensure that each and every student is allocated a National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) number to ensure prudent allocation of resources.

Reads the motion by Passaris: “acknowledging that the implementation of community-based bursary scheme has not fully achieved its intended objective hence the need to re-evaluate the current bursary systems with a view to ensure equitable and free access to quality education for all students; cognizant that the duty of the government to provide free basic education can best be achieved by consolidating education funds and directly remitting to public schools; now therefore, this House urges that the government, through the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, undertakes a comprehensive overhaul of the education bursary system with a view to collapse all bursary schemes and allocate the funds to the State Department of Education for provision of free basic education through capitation to be directly remitted to schools.”

The MPs’ decision followed Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula’s directive in August this year that laws be formulated to collapse all bursaries and public scholarships into one fund.

Wetangula took a cue from Chief Justice Martha Koome who warned that the layers of duplication in the award of bursaries from the NG-CDF, counties, and the Ministry of Education had inconsistencies.

Draft legislation

Speaking after holding a meeting with lawmakers, Wetangula directed the Clerk of the National Assembly to move with speed to draft a legislative framework to give effect to his proposal.

He said: “You find the MP is giving bursary, MCA is giving bursary, governor… women… they all come from the same source.”

Koome had admitted that the layers of duplication in the award of bursaries from the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), counties, and the Ministry of Education revealed glaring inconsistencies.

But speaking on the floor of the house yesterday, the MPs regretted that having one bursary scheme would disadvantage needy students as this would only support the abled children in society.

Wamboka who opposed Passaris’ motion in particular took on Kipsang accusing him of being behind the current challenges being faced in the education sector/

He said: “I must oppose this motion because it is mischievous. The Ministry of Education has a lot of funds but I can tell you that this money only goes to one or two regions in the country. We have a PS called Belio Kipsang’ who does not listen to anyone, he imagines that he is Kenya and Kenya is Belio Kipsang’:

Tatitum opposed the motion on grounds that it was founded on malice and not facts as county governments do not have bursary funds.

Mismanagement

Baya said that they have no confidence in the Ministry because it will “obviously” mismanage the funds should they be collapsed into one scheme.

He said: “We have no trust and confidence that the Ministry of Education will handle the bursaries. If we make the mistake of taking this money to the Ministry of Education, we all know where this money will go. We are the representatives of the people, we know the needy families. We must defeat this motion.”

Elachi raised concerns that despite some top officials working in the MOE for more than thirty years they have been unable to address the challenges facing the current system.

She said: “We have people who have lived in Jogoo for 30 years and they will tell you how they are doing things and part of them are the problem right now. If you have been in a system for 30 years how is it that we cannot make it right for our children in this country? We have to be clear that indeed every child has a right in this country.”

Nabwera called on the MOE to improve its governance structure to ensure equity in the distribution of resources before all the bursary schemes are collapsed into one. Mulu opposed the motion saying that having one bursary scheme will bring a worse crisis in the country as needy children will not be able to access funds.

He said: “It is time we address the issue of schools before we address the issue of bursaries. It is not a secret we know our Ministry of Education, if things are to go on, we can’t trust the Ministry in terms of distribution, issues of trust are so much with that ministry

Rindikiri opposed the proposal to collapse the bursaries saying putting the bursaries in one fund will not solve the problem of the education system.

He said: “This motion was brought in after the failure of the University funding, because of bias witnessed in the distribution of funds.”